OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A brutal new survey has found that the vast majority of respondents do not think that President Joe Biden should run again in 2024.
According to the Yahoo/YouGov survey released on Saturday, 64 percent said Biden shouldn’t run, or 9 points worse than Trump.
What’s more, the same survey found that Trump beats Biden in a head-to-head rematch, according to Mediaite, though 55 percent said they did not want the former president to run again, either.
In the ‘yes’ column, Biden polled at 21 percent versus 31 percent for Trump.
There is more bad news for Biden in the survey as well. Even among Democrats, most would not encourage him to seek reelection: Just 42 percent want him to, while just over one-third, or 36 percent, said he shouldn’t.
Meanwhile, a good majority of Republicans — 58 percent — would encourage Trump to run again while just one-quarter, or 25 percent, would not.
Even worse, just 40 percent of those who voted for him in 2020 want him to run again while 37 percent of those voters do not.
In a rematch, according to the poll, Trump wins 42 percent to 39 percent.
While the survey’s results likely are due in large part to the flagging economic situation most Americans find themselves in — high inflation that has seen large spikes in gas, diesel fuel, food, and energy prices — they came before Biden’s nasty spill on his bike during a ride near his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home on Saturday.
Overall, Biden’s approval ratings have been in a freefall for nearly a year, now reaching a level that is below that of his predecessor. And he’s reportedly not very happy about it.
What’s more, according to NBC News in late May, he also wasn’t pleased with being undermined after nearly every major policy statement he makes, becoming particularly peeved by aides and underlings who quickly ‘correct the record’ and ‘explain what he really meant.’
The outlet reports:
Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say.
Crises have piled up in ways that have at times made the Biden White House look flat-footed: record inflation, high gas prices, a rise in Covid case numbers — and now a Texas school massacre that is one more horrific reminder that he has been unable to get Congress to pass legislation to curb gun violence. Democratic leaders are at a loss about how he can revive his prospects by November, when midterm elections may cost his party control of Congress.
“I don’t know what’s required here,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., whose endorsement in the 2020 Democratic primaries helped rescue Biden’s struggling candidacy. “But I do know the poll numbers have been stuck where they are for far too long.”
The report went on to note that it’s likely major staff shake-ups are looming on the horizon, which will probably occur shortly after the midterms in November.
“They came in with the most daunting set of challenges arguably since Franklin D. Roosevelt, only to then be hit by a perfect storm of crises, from Ukraine to inflation to the supply chain to baby formula,” said Chris Whipple, the author of a book about White House chiefs of staff who is now writing a book about the Biden presidency. “What’s next? Locusts?”
Apparently, Biden wonders something similar.
“I’ve heard him say recently that he used to say about President Obama’s tenure that everything landed on his desk but locusts, and now he understands how that feels,” a White House official said.
“Biden is frustrated. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” said a person close to the president.
Biden’s anger and resentment appear to be having an effect on the Democratic Party as well, with individual members arguing among themselves and pointing fingers at his administration’s failures to make progress on several key issues which they view as harming their chances to keep control of Congress after the fall elections.
